Automatic gate.



C. M. STONE.

AUTOMATIC GATE.

(Application filed Jan. 18, 1901.

' No. 672,924. Patented Apr. 30, l90l.

(No Model.)

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

CLINTON M. STONE, OF FAYETTE C OUNTT, INDIANA, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF,

AND LEWIS PpZELLER, OF OONNERSVILLE, INDIANA.

AUTOMATIC GATE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 672,924, dated April30, 1901.

Application fil d January 18, 1901- Serial No. 43,703. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CLINTON M. STONE, a citizen of the United States,residing in Fayette county, Indiana, (post-office address (Jonnersville,Fayette county, Indiana,) have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Automatic Gates, of which the following is aspecification. V A

This invention pertains to automatic gates of the load-opening typeinvolving a hinged gate whose pivot-axis is thrown out of the verticalby the pulling of cables through the medium of trip-levers acted upon bythe passing vehicle, the approaching vehicle causing the gate to swingopen and the departing vehiole causing it to swing shut. Like many gatesof this class, myimproved gate disturbs the verticality of thehinge-axis of the gate by moving the lower pintle in the arc of a'circle.

My improvements relate to certain details of construction whereby thereis secured a superior degree of certainty in operation and a greaterdegree of permanency of-operative z 5 conditions.

My improvements will be readily understood from the followingdescription, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, inwhich Figure 1 is a perspective view of a gate embodying my improvement;Fig. 2, a plan, part horizontal section and somewhat diagrammatic, ofthe parts at the shifting hingepintle; Fi 3, a perspective view of theparts 5 at the shifting pintle, and Fig. 4 a side elevation of one ofthe tripping devices.

In the drawings, 1 indicates the hinge-post of the gate; 2, thelatch-post, the same appearing in Fig. 1 as being cut off low enough 40down to expose the catch 6; 3, the holdingpost, designed to hold thegate latched in open position; 4, the gate, hinged to post 1 andlatching to post 2 when closed and to post 3 when open; 5, alatch-spring upon the gate,

adapted to spring into engagement with catches upon posts 2 and 3 and tobe disengaged from those catches when the free end of thegate issufficiently elevated, this spring being an inwardly-yielding bladesecured at 0 its upper end to the latch-stile of the gate, the lower endof the spring being free; 6, a

fixed catch upon post 2, behind which the lower end of spring t engages,the ends of the catch being beveled, so that as the gate closes itwillforce the lower end of the spring inward and permit it to engagebehind the catch when the gate is in closed position, the catch being atsuch height relative to the lower end of the spring that a certainelevation of the free end of the gate will lift the spring out ofengagement with the catch; 7, a similar catch upon holding-post 3, thiscatch being adapted to be engaged by spring 5 and hold the gate open; 8,a bracket secured to post 1 near the foot of the hinge-stile of thegate, this bracket having ears projecting toward the hinge edge of thegate; 9, a spindle vertically journaled in bracket 8; 10, an arm fast onspindle 9; 11, a hinge-eye in the outer end of arm 10, adapted toreceive the pintle of the lower gate-hinge; 12, a stop to limit theturning of arm 10 in one direction; 13, a stop to limit the turning ofarm 10 in the other direction, the two stops being so placed as topermit arm 10 to swing through about a quarter of a circle; 14,the upperhinge of the gate; 15, in Fig. 2, a circle illustratiugthe position ofthe pintle of the top hinge relative to hinge-eye 11 of the lower hingewhen the gate is in closed position; 16, a rectangular block fast on thelower end of spindle 9; 17, earsproject-ing from two opposite faces ofblock 16, two ears projecting from oneface and two from the oppositeface of the block, the two ears of a face being in an upper and lowerhorizontal plane, respectively; 18, links pivoted to cars 17 and adaptedto fold against the appropriate faces of block 16, the arrangement beingsuch, as seen in Fig. 2, that in one angular position of block 16 two ofthe links lie against c the faces of the block, while the other twolinks are free of the faces of the block and pull directly upon thelugs, uniting them to the block; 19, eyebolts pivoted to the outer endsof links 18 and provided on their outer ends each with a pair of nuts;20, straps for eyebolt-s 19,'each consisting ofa flat plate with an eyein its outer end, its innereud being bent at right angles and having aneye engaging the eyebolt and adj ustably secured loo thereon by means ofthe nuts; 21, 22, 23, and 24:, cables or wires attached to straps 20 andextending along the side of the roadway, a pair toward and pastholding-post 3 and a pair in the opposite direction; 25, a trip-lever ofhow form disposed at the side of the road- Way in line of wheel trackageat some distance beyond holding-post 3, the bow of the trip presentingitself upwardly and across the wheel-track, so that as a vehicle-wheelstrikes it the trip will yield downwardly; 26, an arm fast on the axisof trip and projecting normally upward in the plane of trip 25; 27, aspring connected with arm 26 and serving to maintain the arm and itstrip 25 yieldingly in normal upright position; 28, a double-ended armloose on the axis of trip 25 and disposed against theinner face of arm26, this doubleended arm having cable 23 connected with its upper endand cable 21 connected with its lower end; 29, alug projecting inwardlyfrom arm 26 and bearing normally against the forward edge of the lowerend of double-ended arm 28 and adapted under certain relative rockingconditions of the arms to engage the forward edge of the upperend of arm28; 30, a foundation-box sunk in the roadway to furnish a support forthe bearings of the triplever and for the spring 27; 31, the tripmechanism which has been described, considered as a whole, being thattrip which is disposed at the opening side of the gate; 32, a similartrip mechanism, considered as a whole, disposed at the opposite side ofthe gate and having its double-ended arm connected with cables 22 and24; 33, an arrow indicating direction of vehicle approach from theopening side of the gate, or, in other words, against the openingdirection of the gate, and 34: an arrow indicating direction of vehicleapproach in the opening direction of the gate.

The drawings indicate the normal position of the parts with the gateclosed. It now, looking at Fig. 2, cable 21 be pulled upon, block 16will be partially rotated, the link 18, pertaining to cable 21,continuing to lie against the face of the block until the block shallhave turned through an eighth of a circle, after which the free end ofthe link leaves theblock. During this operation it is necessary, ofcourse, that cables 23 and 24 should have yielded to permit the turningof the block. The turning of the block 16 through about a quarter-turnhas the effect of moving hinge-eye 11 farther away from the hingepost.The obvious result is that the free end of the gate is lifted, and thislift is to be such that spring 25 will come up out of engagement withcatch 6, thus leaving the gate in condition to be opened. At the sametime the hinge-eye 11 has moved to the right of the vertical plane oftop hinge 15, the result being that the plane of the gate is thrown outof the perpendicular, the general hinge-axis becoming inclined, with itsbottom approaching post 2 and receding from post 3 Under theseconditions of inclined hinge-axis the gravity of the gate causes it toswing open, its free end descending as the swinging takes place. Thegate is finally arrested at holding-post 3, spring 5 snapping behindcatch 7. If now, the gate having been thus opened and held, cable 23 bepulled upon, the hinge-eye 11 will be turned back to normal position.This again elevates the outer end of the gate and frees the latch-springfrom catch 7 and throws the plane of the gate out of the vertical,whereupon gravity causes the gate to swing to closed position, its freeend descending and spring 5 snapping behind catch 6. Thus it will beseen that pulling upon cable 21 or cable 22 the gate will be caused toopen and become latched in open position, while by pulling upon cable 23or cable 24 the gate will become unlatched from the holding-post andcaused to close and become latched to the latch-post.

Normally both trips stand upright, being so held by their springs. If avehicle approaches in the direction of arrow 33, one of its wheels,striking trip 25, will depress that trip and immediately pull upon cable21 and cause the opening of the gate in the manner heretofore described.During this action the proper slack or endwise movement was permitted tocable 23, and when the wheel shall have passed the trip the trip risesto normal position, lug 29 having lost motion with reference to theupper arm of double-ended lever 28, so that arm 28 in its new positionwill not interfere with the lug. having passed through the open gate,engages at trip 32 and depresses it, the result being that cable 24 ispulled upon, thus causing the gate to close behind the vehicle.

It will be observed from Fig. 4: that if a vehicle has actuated trip 25and that trip has risen behind the vehicle a following vehicledepressing trip 25, or the rear wheels of the same vehicle, for thatmatter, are of no damaging effect upon any of the trip mechanism, owingto the lost motion between lug 29 and the two arms of lever 28. Thisapplies to both trip mechanisms, and it follows that one trip can neverinterfere with the action of another or one actuation of either tripbring about conditions of itself or the other trip to be productive ofinjurious strains in case of subsequent actuation of either trip.

I claim as my invention- 1. In a gate, the combination, substantially asset forth, of a hinge-post, a latch-post, a holding-post, beveledcatches on the latchpost and holding-post, a gate, a spring upon thefree end of the gate adapted to snap into and rise out of said catches,an upper gatehinge uniting the gate to the hinge-post, a bracket on thehinge-post, a vertical spindle journaled in said bracket between thehingepost and the gate, an arm fast on said spindle, a hinge-eye in saidarm engaged by the lower hinge-pintle of the gate and adapted by theturning of the arm to throw the plane of the gate out of the verticaland to lift the outer end of the gate, stops to limit the turning ofsaid spindle, a block fast upon said The vehicle,

spindle, four links hinged to the respective corners of said block, twotrip-levers, one mounted in the roadway at each face of the gate, atrip-arm on the axis of the trip-lever in the angular plane of thetrip-lever, a spring connected with said trip-arm and tending to holdthe trip-arm and trip-lever in normal vertical position, a double-endedarm loose on the axis of the trip-lever, a lug upon the trip-arm adaptedto engage and turn the double-ended lever and having lost motion withreference thereto, and cables or wires having connection with said linksand said double-ended arms.

2. In a gate, the combination, substantially as set forth, of ahinge-post, a latch-post, a

a holdingpost, beveled catches on the latchpost and holding-post, agate, a spring upon the free end of the gate adapted to snap-into andrise out of said catches, an upper gatehinge uniting the gate to thehinge-post, a bracket on the hinge-post, a vertical spindle journaled insaid bracket between the hingepost and the gate, an arm fast on saidspindle, a hinge-eye in said arm engaged by the lower hinge-pintle ofthe gate and adapted by the turning of the arm to throw the plane of thegate out of the vertical and to lift the outer end of the gate, stops tolimit the turn ing of said spindle, a block fast upon said spindle, fourlinks hinged to the respective corners of said block, two trip levers,one mounted in the roadway at each face of the gate, a trip-arm on theaxis of the trip-lever provided with a pair of nuts, a strap engagingeach of said eyebolts between the nuts thereof, and cables or wiresconnecting said straps with said double-ended levers.

CLINTON M. STONE.

Witnesses:

G. O. FLOREA, L. L. Bnoonnus.

